


Blind

by orangeCrates



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Child Abuse, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-31
Updated: 2016-03-31
Packaged: 2018-05-30 05:49:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6411316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orangeCrates/pseuds/orangeCrates
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Altair is a single father that tries to raise his sons as best he could. A chance meeting with an old friend could jeopardize the life he'd made and threaten to tear his family apart.</p><p>(At least, that was one perspective, one way of seeing the situation. Not everyone saw it the same way.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blind

**Author's Note:**

> Round three of the evil contest (delayed due to various reasons). The prompt was: Single Father Altair doesn't realize that he's been abusing his children until [someone] sees him interact with them. He had assumed that all families worked that way since it was the way he was raised. He loses the kids (temporarily/permanently) when it becomes apparent that he has no concept of the appropriate way to raise a child.

At eight years old, Darim knew he loved his father and that his father, with his large hands that held him before sleep and the soft cadence of his voice when he told Darim and his brother Sef bedtime stories, loved them back.

He kept a roof above their heads and food in their bellies and he did everything a good father ought to do.

But while Darim loved him (and he did. Truly he did), he was also scared of him because his father wasn't always warm hands and soft words but something less like a hero and more like a dragon.

Darim hicupped and flinched when his Father smoothed a hand over his cheek (bright red and hot in a way that crying couldn't account for).

"Darim," He sighed in a way that made Darim feel _small_ and _helpless_ , "I do not like doing this but this is for your own good. Bad behaviour cannot be tolerated. The world will not accept children with bad behaviour."

Later, his Father would kiss him goodnight and Darim thought maybe if he were better then his father could just be this nice all the time.

~ + ~

But Darim was only eight and it was hard to hold onto the resolution to show only the best behaviour. Not for lack of trying, but he did not have the experience or social know-how to charm his teacher or at least explain to her into understanding how important it was he was not late to pick up his brother from kindergarten.

 _It's raining cats and dogs out there,_ she said. _Your father will understand if you are late. Look, we can even call your brother's teacher. They will understand._

He had wanted to scream at her, but instead he just sniffled and cried.

~ + ~

Sef's kindergarten was barely a ten minute walk away but it seemed tortuously long even when Darim ran all the way there, his head stuffed full with the simple, terrible notion that father-will-be-angry.

He pushed open the front door and didn't pause before he ran for the one inside, the locked one leading into the kindergarten. He somehow refrained from banging on the door and instead, managed to knock politely even as the thought of his father's disappointment and anger shook him to the core.

Darim did not recognize the man who came to the door, but he had Sef, sniffling tearfully into his shoulder and clutching his shoulder.

"Hello," he said, chuckling a little when Sef made a happy sound and leaned towards Darim with his arms outstretched, "easy there, Sef." He said and carefully handed him over to Darim. "I'm Sef's new teacher, Mr. Al-Sayf. Your teacher called and said you'd be late."

Darim adjusted his grip on Sef who threw his arms around his neck as soon as he was able. "It's nice to meet you."

Mr. Al-Sayf nodded. "You're going to wait for your father here?"

"Yes."

"If you need anything, I'll just be in the classroom." He gestured to the first door on the left and Darim nodded and assured him he didn't need anything.

~ + ~

Darim distracted himself by playing with Sef, but he was ever aware of the fact that father-will-be-angry when he arrived.

He was not wrong, and he shrunk back when his Father arrived (because of the way he frowned at him like he was _disappointed_ in him and was going to have to do something neither of them will like). But he did not expect the surprise that flitted accross his father's face, the spark of recognition when he saw Mr. Al-Sayf.

"...Malik?" He said dumbly and Darim was still clutching Sef close and looking back and forth between them.

"Altair." Mr. Al-Sayf said, "it's been years. Where have you been? Why didn't you write?"

For two people who seemed to have once been close friends, their conversation was brief. And it wasn't long before Father turned to him to take Sef from him.

"It was nice seeing you again, Altair."

"You too." He adjusted his hold on Sef so it was secure then he reached down and took Darim's hand, "Come on, Darim. We need to go. Say goodbye, boys." Sef waved happily, and Darim thought, looking at his Father's smile that maybe this was enough to take the edge off the anger.

~ + ~

But when they go back onto the car it was, "you were late, Darim."

He licked his lips and said, "Mrs. Smith wouldn't let me go until the rain--"

"It doesn't matter." His Father said as they pulled out of the parking lot, " _you_ were _late_."

"I'm sorry." Darim blurted out, "It won't happen again. I promise!"

All his Father did was shake his head and sigh.

~ + ~

Afterwards it was, "the world doens't want children with bad behaviour, Darim. I shouldn't need to keep telling you this."

~ + ~

The problem was that Father gave his affection freely, and demanded perfection and absolute obedience in return.

It sounded so reasonable when he talked about it, how it was all for his sake, how if Darim didn't fix his behaviour there would be no place for him in the world.

(But Darim was more concerned with the belief that if he just tried harder, then maybe it would be enough.)

~ + ~

Mr. Al-Sayf was a smiling stranger that was a friend to his father. They bantered good-naturedly from time to time and once, at the end of it, Mr. Al-Sayf said, "you have certainly changed a lot. I hardly recognize you from the child you were at the orphanage!"

And, sometimes before Father came and Mr. Al-Sayf wasn't busy he'd tell him stories from when his Father was a child.

He tilted his head a little, "You don't act much like him at your age. You're much quieter." He stage-whispered it like they were conspirators and Darim wasn't sure how to feel about that piece of information.

~ + ~

Darim did not go home and ask his Father why he changed (and whether it had been for the better).

~ + ~

Father did not often hit him and when he did it was never hard enough to leave lasting marks anywhere it could be seen.

That was not the same as not hitting him at all.

The day he got back with a test where he scored poorly on (though poorly, he'd learn one day was relative and most parents didn't freak out over a 76%). He had sat with Sef sleeping against his shoulder, shaking like a leaf and maybe that was the first time Mr. Al-Sayf noticed something was wrong (or maybe he had just said nothing all along. After all, bad behaviour can't be tolerated. Why else would his Father do all this?)

He asked, "Is everything all right?"

"Yes." Darim lied and thought, lying was the worst offense (lying meant the belt), but he had some notion that he wasn't meant to tell. (Bad behaviour wasn't tolerated.)

Mr. Al-Sayf didn't seem convinced at all.

~ + ~

The thing was, daycare workers and teachers were all taught to recognize the signs and behaviours that were warning flags. But this was _Altair_ and Malik knew him from so many years ago and he couldn't imagine--it didn't make sense.

Whatever his faults were, Altair had never been cruel and he was, in fact, fiercely protective of those he cared about.

It simply did not _make sense_ , but the signs were all there, written in Darim's soft (scared) denials and his fear of tardiness that led him to escape when his teacher wasn't looking and running through a storm to get to Sef's kindergarten on time. (Mrs. Smith had been nearly hysterical when she called him.)

He didn't want to believe it, but that didn't stop him from making a phone call he'd hoped never to have to make in his lifetime.

~ + ~

Based on what Malik told them, it was enough to open an investigation. He was aware that his identity as the one to bring attention to this case would never be revealed, but Altair must have guessed in spite of that, because he came to him with a snarling mouth and tight fists like he wanted to hit him.

"You bastard." And he grabbed Malik by the front of his shirt (because Darim had cried when they took him away and begged to be allowed to stay and that he would _be good_ just don't send him away).

Malik pushed him away with more violence than he expected himself to be capable of.

"I hoped I was wrong! What are you doing, Altair? How could you do that to a child? Especially your own?"

"Don't talk like you know anything!" Altair wasn't shouting, but there was violence int he way he bared his teeth, "everything I did was for his own good!"

"He was afraid of you! What good is there in that?"

"Children with bad behaviour won't survive in this world." Altair said like it was an unshakeable truth.

(And it was, it had been for years since Rashid had adopted him, repeating those same sentiments. He'd shake his head and sigh at Altair.

"I do this for your own good. You will thank me for this one day.")


End file.
